Christmas decorating

I loved the tea towel with the crocheted candy canes and had to buy it 2 years ago, but just couldn't figure what to do with it. I think it works to "top" the chair and reminds me of my great-grandparents' house with the doilies on the chair backs and arms. I don't remember where I picked up the poinsettia needlepoint pillow, but I know it would have been on sale after Christmas one year.

The new entertainment wall unit has made for some great decorating options. I'm not so happy about the singing Elvis Hound Dog, but making the hubby happy. (Also, see leg lamp in coming pictures...)

I made the paper poinsettia wreath from Paper Source after painting the mdf form green since it would be reflected in the mirror. The vinyl applique says "may peace be your gift at Christmas". The tree is refected in the mirror. It's in the breakfast nook because there's no room in the den. It works though.

Here's the new dining room decked out for Christmas. I didn't have the ability to put up all of my crystal and porcelain ornaments because one of my topiary trees has no lights and without the mirror and garland to hang some off, well, no space. I did find the ornament stand at Ikea for $1.95, the votive holders were $1 each at Target, and I had the candle rings. You can see the leg lamp on the bookcase in the background and the sliver of the office on the left shows the white tree that holds all of the USC Gamecock ornaments. Looks great with the blue walls!

This is my favorite grouping. I added the silver and gold "fluff" in the ironstone pitcher and the footed votive holder was half-off at Michael's this year. Really, really like all the ivory, silver and gold in the dining room. It looks so lovely.

A roundup: Silver, gold, and ivory in the dining room. Garnet, red, black and silver in the adjoining office. Red, green, and white in the kitchen/den/breakfast room.

Decorations I've made this year: I added bright green to the painting I did over the mantel, the poinsettia wreath, another wreath with red, green, and white ornaments..it hangs on the curtain rod in the breakfast room. I added 12 poinsettia stems to the pickling crock that hangs by the fireplace, and bought 3 pillows on sale at Target.

So far, that's it.

Thought I should post before Christmas. Now off to do more baking, shopping, cleaning, and wrapping!

Asher's Quilt

The finished quilt. A few months overdue, but he came a few weeks early, which made the time I was going to work on the quilt turn into time to spend holding my new nephew.

The process started with the valances Asher's mom, Kristen, found at PB outlet. They had giraffe and sheep appliqued on them. She bought 2 for the windows, and I bought one to cut up for a quilt. She also bought coordinating valances in a stripe that we cut up and made into a dust ruffle for the crib. I drew out some similar animals, then used carbon paper to trace individual shapes and cut them out of fabric scraps that I'd fused to two sided fusible. then fused to the backing material and then zig-zaged around to applique.

The right side pile of fabrics were the animals and the left made up the quilt.The top dot material came from the valance with the animals and the stripe material was left over from making the dust ruffle. The rest I bought for this project.

The giraffe was much larger than the sheep, so figuring out cutting and placement was tricky, but I finally came up with this.

The animals in the corners got a surround of strips of the 4 materials. I used ribbon that I had on hand that matched one of the original fabrics from the valance to make a 3-d lion's mane. This was so fun to work on. I hope Asher enjoys it! It looks great in his room.

Ack! I missed November.

Really, where did it go? One day it was Halloween, the next it's already December. In my defense, I was really busy. Lots going on at church, girl scouts met here 2x, a fun hike on Veteran's Day, finishing up a quilt for my new nephew, prepping for Thanksgiving, and getting the Christmas wrapping started. A few pictures from the month:



The view from Crowder's Mountain looking west toward the Smokies.

The family after our hike to King's Pinnacle. Megan whined and complained the.whole.way. Not that she shows it here.
The new lamps on the dining room buffet. They are a bit shorter than I'd like, but they are beautiful and just the right shades.
I'll share the quilt soon, and Christmas decor.